Sophia Latysheva

Sophia Latysheva

In her œuvre, Sophia explores the limits of sculpture questioning its classical concept and reinterpreting its basic principles, such as mass, volume, proportion and motion.

She has previously produced works in response to her interest in architecture, attempting to establish links between human body and structures of the space. In those artworks, dialogue is articulated through subject of physical sensations.

Comparing sculpture with blue prints, she pays attention not to the contour of the forms but to emptiness within them, which took on its own momentum and obtained physical volume. Thus, the sculptural elements served as borders between the positive and negative spaces of the work, making their definition questionable. By doing so, her sculptures change the architecture of given spaces, drawing new narratives of the viewer’s encounter with a new environment.

These works need an attentive and careful observation to make voids within framing shapes tangible. However, the moment when the viewer encounters the sculpture is stressed by the potential of the metal strips to fall down. The unstable presence of the works pushes forward all the physical sensations.
“Sofia carefully arranged her sculptures and the waiting time was over to me. Actually, it never started. When a person enters the room where these sculptures are, he or she can not be anymore on her/his own. The presence of both, the person and the sculptures, is inevitable. The dialogue starts already here. How far it will go depends on different aspects. First intuitively, then deliberately these aspects became a core of my approach to Sofia’s work.

The fragility of the sculpture questions the body awareness. I should forget about being concentrated only on my own. The possibility of failure, of breaking the immaculate raw of the sculptures strains and disciplines me simultaneously. I am more than ever before responsible for the piece that was created not by me. At the same time, the gap between the sculptures gives me a seductive opportunity or, being precise, many of them. Every gap between the sculptures is a chance either to experience a glorious consensus or to destroy. Communication happens in the precise frames in between the sculptures and in the space around each of them, with strategies ranging from being a shy explorer to a fearless seducer.”